Search Engine Optimization For Startups & Small Businesses (S5E4)

What you’ll see this episode:

This episode dives into the world of SEO and how to properly use it to your business’s advantage. After a grueling round of consults, the winners are put to the test with an on-the-spot Blox Off that leaves some contestants searching for answers.

Day Three Gets Spicy

Our episode opens with introductions to get to know some more contestants and their businesses. As the contestants pile into the classroom, Wes is ready with one of the most relevant topics for all startups and business owners – SEO. Of all the crucial lessons the contestants learn, the most important is this: just start.

We get to know some more Bloxers over lunch just before the day’s challenge begins. Wes reveals that the contestants must complete a demand template for their business, choosing between a harvesting or creation demand. The contestants go through their frameworks with the judges and groundbreaking moments are had for multiple Bloxers.

Wes warns the contestants that tonight’s Blox-Off is “extra bad,” and that no extra direction will be given. The contestants are nervous and with good reason – the night’s Blox-Off is a literal pop quiz in SEO. While some contestants were A+ students, others could use a good dose of detention. 2 new jersey-wearers are announced, and the contestants head off for a good night’s sleep before day four.

Search Engine Optimization For Startups & Small Businesses

The third lesson of this season focuses on SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, which is what allows your company to be found. Powering SEO are keywords, which can be used strategically on social media and Google. The lesson dives into the differences between demand harvesting and demand creation, which will show where your focus should lie: social media or Google. We learn the best practices for Google Adwords in order to get the best cost of customer acquisition. But as Wes notes – none of this matters if your landing pages suck. He delves into best practices for landing pages and contact form submissions before ending the day with a crash course in all things keywords, including the infamous SEO Periodic Table Of Elements.

Key Takeaways From This Episode:

1. Google is an auction-based system. This means your cost-per-click, which is the most important metric there is to study, is contingent mostly on how many other marketers out there are bidding for the same word.
2. Use your instinct to bid for words you know your customers are searching for. Then use the Keyword planner to help ideate other keywords that you didn’t think of.
3. One way beginners can start to increase their SEO is by building up the quality and quantity of one or more of their social media pages.
4. To determine if search or social is working better, you could create different landing pages that are identical, and send Google ads to one landing page, and social media ads to another. Whichever one creates the most/ best leads, is your winner.
5. The sum value of SEO is based on your content, architecture, HTML, trust, links, users, and toxins.